The Conference of the Birds: A Telling of the Sufi Folktale

Name: The Conference of the Birds: A Telling of the Sufi Folktale
Start: 2026-05-30T19:00:00-04:00
Location: Story Parlor

Schedule

Sat, 30 May, 2026 at 07:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

Story Parlor | Asheville, NC

The Conference of the Birds:
A Contemporary Telling of the Great Sufi Folktale
This mystical tale will be woven through the evocative artistic stylings of Frank Salzano's storytelling, Madeleine Seas's shadow puppetry, and Elan DeHaro's live world music.
When: Saturday, May 30th - 7pm
Where: Story Parlor, 227 Haywood Rd, West Asheville, NC
This is a ticketed performance that will likely sell out!
Tickets are $25 and available through Story Parlor's website: https://storyparloravl.com/calendar/conference-of-birds-may30
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The Great Turning has arrived and the birds of the world have gathered to plan a sojourn through the mystical landscape of these alchemical times. Some fear it is the Times of Trouble and the dangers are too many. Others seek the whispers and unveiling hidden inside the pain and suffering of the world. A few who have remembered their lost longing venture off with the Hoopoe, the great guide of pilgrim souls, who promises to take them on a perilous journey to find the Simurgh, the mythic bird who holds the long forgotten secret of the world’s renewal.
The Conference of the Birds is the great Sufi epic poem and folktale from medieval Persia. It carries the mythopoetic murmurs of the Starry River & the Silk Road. It was delivered by 12th century poet Farid ud-Din Attar. This will be an celestial-rich, alchemically-infused contemporary telling complete with live music and shadow puppetry. It’s deep ancestral soul-food!
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About the artists:
*Frank Salzano is a cultural astronomer, storyteller & astrologer. He weaves together starlore & ancient myth-telling with cosmology, poetics, intellectual history, cultural musings & heart-centered teachings. His teachings, performances, divinations, & ancestral rememberings can all be found at Medicine of the Starry Heavens. www.medicineofthestarryheavens.com
*Madeleine Seas’s art explores the endless ways form and light harmonize and bring forth dream beings, weaving playfulness with sentimentality and telling stories that hold the heart gently. Her puppetry frequently dances through the imaginal realms of New Orleans, New York and the hinterlands of Western North Carolina.
*William “Elan” DeHaro for five years travelled through Europe and North America where he played music with people from diverse cultures. Elan’s transportive music style takes listeners on a voyage with evocative tones, eclectic sounds and inspiring melodies. Some of his instruments are guitar, violin, medieval cittern, Persian kamanche and piano where he weaves together an ancient tapestry of European, Middle Eastern, Spanish, Oriental and Gypsy styles.